11/18/09

Hey everyone!

SO another week has gone by already! It has been a tougher week to be honest, but that means I learned more so that is always the upside :)

So right now I am actually in Chihuahua... again... for the whole root canal thing. The people who had to make my post for my tooth messed up twice so that is part of the reason why I have kept coming back for so long.

The weird part is how much money there is in the state of Chihuahua. There is a bigger town close to us in Meoqui called Delicais and it has a lot of money. There are a lot of rich people and a lot of nice building with lots of technology, and I was confused about where all this money comes from because the city of Chihuahua has a lot of money too. But every time I ask anyone where all the money comes from and what Chihuahua does to bring in so much money and everyone says it’s from drug trafficking.... I think it’s kind of funny because Chihuahua is actually a really nice city.

So this Sunday I had to give a talk and I prayed to find out what I needed to speak about and the spirit indicated I was to speak about repentance, so I studied the topic a bit and learned a lot and then as I walked to the front of the pulpit on Sunday I felt prompted by the spirit to change my topic to keeping the Sabbath day holy... It turned out real well and I learned a lot from the whole experience. The talk went well and I felt really good speaking, I have gotten rid of my nerves when I speak at church. Well not all... I still get a little of the "pre game gitters" but that’s it.

BUT... that was not the same case with zone conference.... We had zone conference on Monday and the mission president asked me to teach at zone conference on Sunday morning before. We had to be ready to leave at 4:45am on Monday so I only had Sunday night to prepare. I felt really good about it and had it all planned out and all, but I felt nervous during the whole presentation to be honest. People said I didn't show it too much, but I felt weird. I have never been nervous like that before. I had to teach for 10 minutes and then have the zone practice for 20 minutes. Its only 30 minutes and I had it all ready, but my nerves got me more than I had planned.... In the end it turned out okay and I was grateful for the chance to learn. All though it was really tough, the experience made me stretch a LOT plus remember I had to do it all in another language... ha-ha :)

The cool part of the conference was that it was in Parral, which is the very bottom of the state. We had to drive 3 hours with 17 people in a van made for 12... It was fun and I got to meet a lot of other missionaries. Plus on the way home I was able to sit in front for a while and I had a really good one on one talk with President Flores. I’m REALLY grateful to have such a great mission president. He is really focused and we work so hard. A lot of elders are sad because we don’t do lots of side activities and recreational things, like going to sporting events or site-seeing, but I love that we have very little time wasted. We ONLY have 2 years, we can do want WE want our whole lives. But for now, the least we can do is what the Lord wants. President Flores is a very efficient mission president. That is why we can baptize 200 people in a month, we don’t waste time. And I love it this way and it’s really pushed me and to focus on what I am doing.

OH and another positive note! We baptized Jazmin AND Chumel this week! And we had the best baptismal service I have had in the mission! :) We had Jazmin all ready to go and I told you about her last week. But Chumel was an un-expected baptism. We have been preparing him for the last 3 months and he has been ready, but he allows other people to influence his decisions and so he was delaying his baptism. We wanted to help him set a baptismal date this week, but when we were teaching I felt really inspired by the lord to teach about the plan of salvation, something he already knows really well, and then after I tied in the part of how we cannot make it back the Gods presence without baptism and flat out told him that Gods loves him and wants him, Chumel, to be as happy as he can. That is why the missionaries were there and that God wants him to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong and my comp was surprised, but I KNOW he felt the spirit and accepted the invitation. He was baptized 2 days later :) I also baptized him so obviously that made it a lot more special. He was way ready and will be an amazing missionary someday as he is still a young man. Also his mom is now active and excited to be at church after YEARS of not wanting anything with the church. I think I mentioned something about her last week. She was WAY excited to see her son baptized after being so against it for so long. It really helped me to realize the power of our calling and that we are here to speak for Jesus Christ and tell people what Christ himself desires to tell them. Obviously guided by the spirit, we can teach with authority as God says we can. A MTC teacher taught me this principle in the MTC but since being here I forgot a little about it and the whole experience was a big testimony builder for me. It is important to truly know that the spirit can and will work through the missionaries. We are not just another church, nor are we competing against anyone. We are part of the church of God, he is on our side. If we call on his power he will respond, I know it. I have seen it. I LOVE the work!

So as I mentioned last week we had a lot of member support during the baptismal service. It was great! People brought food and we had people to give talks and direct and all. It was amazing to be there and I was SO very happy! One of the happiest times of my life once again. There is no joy like the joy of sharing the gospel, and the happiness it brings, with people we love! :) I love the work and would not trade the experiences I am having for anything! There is no way to learn what a missionary can learn in the mission field without living the experience, it’s a life changing experience. Learning how to forget myself and put myself in the service of others is the best thing I have ever done and will never regret the 2 short years I got to give for all I have learned.

So although we have been blessed immensely over these past few weeks, we have struggled with the current ward leader. He is not the bishop as we don’t have a bishop yet, but the stake president has put him in charge and he was the bishop for 7 years more than three years ago and the reason a LOT of the members had become less active. He can be prideful sometimes and struggles to let other participate in things and just does things how he wants. It’s been tough because we HAVE to work with him, there is no other way. We have done all we can to be really respectful and have a friendship with him, which we do. But he wants everything his way and when it comes to the work he does not confide in us. It’s hard because we do all the work and are the ones helping everyone so I don’t understand how he cannot trust us. Who knows.... I feel like he had a bad experience with missionaries in the past. I guess that means we need to serve him more and pray more. The Lord can soften his heart, I’m sure of it. Sorry to babble about it, it’s one of our current challenges.

So we don’t have much time left and I feel like I have written a lot. But today when we were in the mission offices some American missionaries who have only been in Mexico for 2 months were there because they had to go get their finger prints done and such to get the whole visa thing figured out, like I did a few months ago. It was funny to see them and hear their conversations and see how nervous and unsure they were. It brought back funny memories because I was in the same spot 6 months ago! It made me so happy to be able to speak Spanish without doubting myself anymore. It was fun to remember how far I have some. I was talking to Elder Anderson, who is from my district in the MTC, he works in the offices, and we talked a lot about how far we have come in the mission and about a few other missionaries from our group. I was glad to help them out a bit and translate for the Spanish elders a little bit.

Oh and about the whole Christmas thing... ha-ha, if you want to send me something just make sure it gets to the El Paso address by the 15th of Dec. If it gets there a little late I feel like it will be okay, but just to be sure the 15th is great. Sorry I am not able to send more stuff to everyone... I don’t really have money or the ability to go buy cool stuff to send. I’ll try to look for stuff though. Oh and half of the mission is going to sing at some big event here in Chihuahua on the 19th of December so I’m excited for that! We are going to sing “Called to Serve” and the "We have been born as Nephites of Old". Obviously in Spanish!

I love the work and thanks for all the help and support! Oh side note, the mission president has not gone to Texas in 3 weeks so none of my letters have been sent yet, so sorry everyone who has not received letters from me.

LOVE you all!!!

Elder Andrew Davidson